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10/17/2011

Secretary of State Husted Announces Ballot Board Meeting

COLUMBUS – Secretary of State Jon Husted has called a meeting of the Ohio Ballot Board for Friday, October 21, 2011, at 1:30 p.m. in the Finance Hearing Room of the Ohio Statehouse, located on the first floor of the Senate Building at 1 Capitol Square, Columbus, Ohio, 43215.

As required by Ohio law, the Ballot Board will meet to determine whether a proposed constitutional amendment regarding medical marijuana consists of more than one amendment. The Ballot Board has 10 days from the date the certification is received from the Attorney General to complete this task.

If the Ballot Board concludes that it is, in fact, one amendment then the petitioners may begin to collect signatures for their initiated constitutional amendment. If however, the Ballot Board concludes that there is more than one amendment, then the board will divide the initiative petition into individual petitions containing only one constitutional amendment so as to enable the voters to vote on each proposal separately and certify its approval to the attorney general. Petitioners would then need to resubmit summaries for each of the individual petitions to the attorney general for certification.

Petitioners will need to collect 385,245 signatures, which is equal to 10 percent of the total vote cast for Governor in 2010. As part of the total number of signatures needed to place the measure on the ballot, petitioners must also have collected signatures from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, and within each of those counties, collected enough signatures equal to five percent of the total vote cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election, 2010.

Secretary Husted serves as chair of the Ballot Board and oversees the board’s proceedings. Other members of the Ballot Board include: Fred Strahorn, Vice Chair; State Senator Keith Faber; Mark Griffin; and William N. Morgan. Ballot Board meetings are open to the public.